Attraction of cacao mirid bug (Helopeltis bakeri Poppius) to feeding attractant β-caryophyllene using wind tunnel bioassay

• Main Author: Dela Cruz, Maria Criselda V.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Helopeltis; Cacao—Diseases and pests; Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/6178; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/13225/viewcontent/DelaCruz_Final_Manuscript2_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Theobroma cacao L. produces the main ingredient for the production of chocolates, making it a high value agricultural crop cultivated globally. Cacao was recognized for various health benefits and due to this, the demand has increased considerably over the last few decades. Global cacao industry forecast a 30% growth in the demand with a shortage of 1 million MT by year 2020. Being an equatorial crop, the climatic and geographical topography of the Philippines is suitable for growing this crop and could be advantageous for local farmers to profit and participate in the supply problem of the global market. However, farmers continuously deal with the decreasing supply mainly due to pest infestations. Cacao mirid bug (Helopeltis bakeri Poppius) is one of the emerging pests of cacao and it feeds and oviposit on the cacao pods, causing lesions that renders cacao unmarketable. The use of semiochemicals is one program of IPM applied to confuse, attract, and trap pests in a biologically based way. This study aimed to evaluate the attraction of H. bakeri towards the feeding attractant β-Caryophyllene, determine the optimum concentration and assessed different trap designs for the control of H. bakeri using wind tunnel behavioral bioassays. The optimization of β-caryophyllene concentration resulted that among treatments 45 μg, 65 μg, 90 μg and 180 μg of β-caryophyllene, 90 μg of β-caryophyllene attracted the highest number of H. bakeri (75.05%) in standard delta trap prototype and was highly significant from the control and other concentrations tested. Among the tested trap designs, the rectangular trap has the most catch (50%) and was significantly different from the pyramid trap and bottle trap except from the green sticky board. Therefore, there was a positive attraction behavior of H. bakeri, confirming the potential of β-caryophyllene as an attractant to H. bakeri. The data obtained in this study serves as a baseline data to be used in future field assays and further aid in reducing infestations to T. cacao and boost local production.